I prefer the runes over some item that will maybe be used in 1-2 parts of the game.
Breath of the Wild has electricity puzzles in about as many. And puzzles in the previous 3D Zelda games were at always high quality, added a diversity to the game that Breath of the Wild almost completely lacks, and had uses in combat. Trying to use magnesis or the stasis charge in combat is a game of backpeddling and begging to get knocked back with a spear tip.
I agree but would that work in this game? I'm a little disappointed we are given most of the core abilities at the beginning but love the freedom they provide. Your suggestion worked in other Zeldas due to them being much smaller: specific locations aren't so easy to forget.
Even with BotW's fast travel it could be incredibly annoying trying to hunt down that solitary hookshot target you remembered seeing 15 hours ago on some mountain somewhere. And that's just one location and one item - imagine if there were dozens (or even hundreds). Trying to find all the Korok seeds is bad enough. With a smaller map it would work. I expect it took the Zelda team a while trying to find the balance between freedom and available abilities; their solution isn't perfect but for a game of this size I think it works quite well.
Breath of the Wild did not need to be as large as it is and has a bunch of unused space as a result, especially toward the north edge of the map as if they ran out of time to develop those areas or something. Moreover, I reject your assumption that remembering objects to go back to is hard. They already made a game about combing through countless Korok puzzles that practically no one is going to complete, and one with stamps and map markers to boot.
Freedom is nothing but posturing without something to do. In a Zelda game it is expected that that something won't be just combat and sidequests, but puzzles as well. Again, they already made a game with about 200 golf puzzles, 200 tree puzzles, 100 fruit puzzles, 200 stone pattern puzzles, and 200 block puzzles plus shrines, many of which are similar puzzles or the same mini boss fight. All of these you already know how to do after the first, like, three. You heard the game director say it himself at GDC: Making Zelda puzzles takes too much work, we'll just make the same puzzle over and over again a hundred different — but not really different — little ways.
The headline is that Breath of the Wild makes Zelda more like an RPG — and it does in the modern open world genre sense. However, at the same time they did something that makes it greatly less like an RPG. They removed the progression, something unheard of in the series. You just get stronger now. That game you're playing when you first fight a bokoblin? It's the same exact one as on the peaks of the far mountains. Here's a new animal and shirt.
Presenting players with the lacking selection of items at the beginning is the entire problem with the game. The game would have been just as complete, but utterly more satisfying if the four runes were hidden within the dungeons and the world puzzles adjusted to match. But knowing everything that you can do and will do in the new Zelda game nearly a year before it's out sucks and I hope they never make that mistake again.
Again, Breath of the Wild is a game I enjoy despite its sameness. It is a game I think it clearly better than most of its peers in the open world genre. It is not a Zelda game and I am violently irked at it for that.
Breath of the Wild has electricity puzzles in about as many. And puzzles in the previous 3D Zelda games were at always high quality, added a diversity to the game that Breath of the Wild almost completely lacks, and had uses in combat. Trying to use magnesis or the stasis charge in combat is a game of backpeddling and begging to get knocked back with a spear tip.
Shooting eyeballs on the walls and pushing blocks onto switches isn't what I'd call "high quality." BotW's physics-based puzzles (and the overworld puzzles that rely primarily on pattern recognition) are much more engaging and creative.
And I've integrated runes into my battle strategies plenty of times without getting owned as a result. Of course, you do so when it makes sense in the context of the battle. Perhaps this is a simple case of needing to "git gud," or at least think a little bit before charging into battle. Unlike virtually every other Zelda game, this one actually rewards strategic approaches to combat scenarios.
Breath of the Wild did not need to be as large as it is and has a bunch of unused space as a result, especially toward the north edge of the map as if they ran out of time to develop those areas or something. Moreover, I reject your assumption that remembering objects to go back to is hard. They already made a game about combing through countless Korok puzzles that practically no one is going to complete, and one with stamps and map markers to boot.
I disagree. There's a fundamental difference between needing to comb the entire map to find the one thing you need to do to progress the plot, which is intrusive and disrupts the flow of the game, and little environmental puzzles which are designed to reward exploration. Many older 3D Zelda games are poorly designed with regard to 'leading' the player in the right direction with world design alone.
And BotW is as chock full of stuff to see and do as I could have ever wished for. Of course not every inch of the map has some big treasure and life-changing reveal associated with it, but the ease of exploration, combined with the constant reward of finding new Korok puzzles and hidden shrines, justifies the size of the map. I would also say that the scope of the environment is a reward in itself, considering the breathtaking sights you can find throughout Hyrule. Not all of my explorations have been productive, but they've never been anything other than engaging. This is perhaps the first 3D Zelda game I've played that doesn't feel like it's wasting my time with limiting world design.
Freedom is nothing but posturing without something to do. In a Zelda game it is expected that that something won't be just combat and sidequests, but puzzles as well. Again, they already made a game with about 200 golf puzzles, 200 tree puzzles, 100 fruit puzzles, 200 stone pattern puzzles, and 200 block puzzles plus shrines, many of which are similar puzzles or the same mini boss fight. All of these you already know how to do after the first, like, three.
The freedom is important for the focus on exploration and interactive creativity. If you're not constantly finding stuff to do in this game, then you're not making your own goals. Aren't there ever any resources you want to farm? Weapons you want to collect? Everything in this game is about limiting the degree to which the developers tell you how to have fun and expanding the ways in which you can do your own thing. Which is incredibly liberating, especially for a 3D Zelda, since those games tend not to have much more environmental interactivity than your average Naughty Dog mediocrity.
The headline is that Breath of the Wild makes Zelda more like an RPG — and it does in the modern open world genre sense. However, at the same time they did something that makes it greatly less like an RPG. They removed the progression, something unheard of in the series. You just get stronger now. That game you're playing when you first fight a bokoblin? It's the same exact one as on the peaks of the far mountains. Here's a new animal and shirt.
I disagree. Progression isn't gone, it's just not artificially walled off in certain ways. While it's certainly not a game with a huge narrative focus, between the gradually increasing strength of my weapons, the gradually increasing scope of my stamina and health bars that allowed me to attempt things later in the game that would have been suicide early on, the gradual accumulation of knowledge about the world, physics systems, side-quests, shrine quests, etc. that allowed me to more fully understand the in-game environment as I continued through the game, and last, if not least, the slow but steady recollection of memories that allowed me to piece the backstory together, the game definitely had a constant sense of forward motion. And I find that sort of organic progression more rewarding than "you don't get to progress the game at all until you journey to the other side of the map and engage in this series of menial tasks until a cutscene is triggered/you gain a new ability."
Presenting players with the lacking selection of items at the beginning is the entire problem with the game. The game would have been just as complete, but utterly more satisfying if the four runes were hidden within the dungeons and the world puzzles adjusted to match. But knowing everything that you can do and will do in the new Zelda game nearly a year before it's out sucks and I hope they never make that mistake again.
I disagree. It would have just walled off progress in order to give the game an artificial sense of progression that is inferior to the organic progression that is enabled by having all of the relevant abilities at the beginning of the game. Considering the game's focus on exploration and adventure, it would be a constant tease and an infuriating design choice.
Again, Breath of the Wild is a game I enjoy despite its sameness. It is a game I think it clearly better than most of its peers in the open world genre. It is not a Zelda game and I am violently irked at it for that.
See, this is what I don't understand. It's not a Zelda game just because it's not the hundreth variation of Ocarina of Time? Are the first two games not Zeldas either? If anything, this is what the series should have been all along but for the limits of technology and Nintendo's pitiful unwillingness to experiment with the core formula since Ocarina of Time until now (although A Link Between Worlds gets major points: while it doesn't up-end the structure of the series, it does make it much more versatile and puzzles were some of the best in the series).
With the clothing from amiibo like the Twilight Princess outfit, can you only get them once? I still haven't gotten the Twilight Princess tunic and I'm worried I missed it... Sometimes when bringing in more than 2 amiibo, one of the chests would just disappear and I don't know if I lost it for good or if I just haven't come across it yet. Got everything else from it and I think I just have the Wind Waker cap from Toon Link.
I loaded my save file up several times while scanning Link and Toon Link and just got the Tunic of Wind so I'm hoping it just can take time to get.
I finally beat a Lynel today and it felt so good seeing it fall. I was surprised I managed to defeat it, but I think I got the hang of it now. I was also surprised to see you can hop on and try ride them too but I didn't have enough stamina to tame it.
I did my first divine beast mission too which was really fun.
On an unrelated note, I now have 9 hearts. I know you need at least 13 to get the Master Sword as it drains your health as you grab it. But if I had an elixer that gave me extra health and bumped me up to 13 hearts would that also work?
Nintendo Network ID: MrMeowPuss Friend Code: SW-7290-1987-5404
Haha, @Monkey_Balls Box Tale gave me a chuckle as well. I'm also with them and @Tsurii on the whole progression thing. It was clearly a very conscious decision to give the player practically all the tools they would need as soon as as they left the Great Plateau, but I think they've managed the downsides of that really, really well.
Yes, after hundreds of hours into the game, you can start to see certain patterns; your tenth Hinox isn't as magical as your first (which is a gaming memory that I'll probably never forget); your first rock circle is a joy while your twentieth is an obligation; there comes a point where you've used every weapon type, and can only look forward to the same thing with bigger numbers. The game isn't infinitely big. It feels infinitely big, but eventually the rug that's draped across this massive world starts to show its patterns.
But personally I think it's incredible that they've managed to deck the world out this intricately to begin with. I took down an enemy camp yesterday - and Lord knows what number it was - and I can still feel the satisfaction because although it wasn't my first camp, it was the first one quite like it, and the first time I'd besten one in that manner.
No, it's not a 'Zelda' game like every other Zelda game, but to be brutally honest, I'd bloody well had enough Zelda games. Last generation brought new versions of OoT, MM, WW and TP, and the Wii U could play happily accept and run SS. In other words, you could play literally every single 3D Zelda game on a Wii U or 3DS, and with the eShop, possibly all the 2D ones too. That's enough to 'Zelda' games for me. IMO, the best thing, BotW did was 'not be a Zelda game'. I didn't need another Zelda game. It's not perfect, but it has been one of the most groundbreaking and phenomenal experiences I've had on a console.
Maybe the next Zelda game can be more of a 'Zelda' game. I hope it's more tightly woven, and more packed with people, and their problems and personalities. I wouldn't mind a change of scene from the wilderness. But Breath of the Wild has been a breath of fresh air, and I'm exceedingly grateful to it for that.
@Tsurii Yeah he meant that. @Spanjard No, there's not a set for every piece of clothing in the game. There are pieces that are standalone.
Hitted the 50 hrs mark and i'm almost done with Death Mountain. Explored Goron City and i bought the remaining parts of the Flamebreaker Set, and upgraded all to 2 stars to get the bonus (thanks to all lizards i previously gathered for potions! ). Did the side quests i found (the two brothers with the Shrine and the magmarok). I managed to do all Shrines i was able to find and i have to say that i'm really impressed with the ones in Death Mountain. Generally they were just 1 room with a simple puzzle, in this Shrines it was instead a series of 5-6, if not 7, puzzles all linked. They were really awesome and so much satisfying and fun to do! With this Shrines i was able to buy the 13th Hearth. Now i need just to take the Dinraal Scale and go talk with the Goron Chief to start the main quest part that will lead to the Divine Beast!
@Maxz
Very good post, I agree. I've just crested the 50-hour "milestone," if that's what we want to call it, and you are right: it's been around this point that I've really sort of "figured" the game out. I'm getting pretty darn good at spotting Korok locations. Most enemies don't give me much trouble anymore. Traversing the land is getting faster and faster due to little shortcuts and all of the abilities I now have. Most of the puzzle elements in the shrines are starting to become very familiar, speeding up those solutions, as well. I sort of feel like, aside from Hyrule Castle (because I haven't gone there yet), I've "seen it all" - and I don't mean that negatively in the least.
I still enjoy playing the game immensely. 50+ hours in any other open-world game and I'd be rushing to the end if I weren't finished already. I've already done that in the likes of Skyrim and Mass Effect and Dragon Age, etc.
But I'm not doing that here because I'm still having fun. I could go to take on Ganon at any point right now. I have all main story lines accomplished. But I find myself still wanting to just putter around, finding Koroks and shrines and wrapping up my sidequests. This game was such a relief in an age where nothing seems to appeal to me anymore and everything just seems so much the same. I was watching the new Mass Effect game on Twitch, and even that doesn't get me excited. But this Zelda game, I don't know - they really did something special here.
Alright zeld00ds, I need some straight up tips, because am at a complete loss.
Firstly, THREE TREES IN A ROW! It must have some meaning! I'm sure I'm passing up a Korok every time I don't do whatever clever thing you're supposed to do in their vicinity. It's not pick all the fruit it is? I'm gonna try picking all the fruit.... But this has stumpted me since the beginning of the game. I'm more stumpted than the trees after I chop them down in the hope that something magical happens. Super stumpted. Literally tree stumpted.
Secondly, Stealthfin Trout. I know they're supposed to be stealthy and all, but I've not seen hide nor hair not gill nor fin of a single one! WHERE YOU AT, FISHBROS?
Thirdly, how do you post images that are captured on your Switch without sending them to Twitter or Facebook first? Is it possible?
Thx 2 all game fans.
Also, how great is Kakariko? I just went back there for reasons (including a desire to snap some hot carrots and pumpkin pics to complete the Materials section of the Compendium [which isn't as impossibly big as I first felt]), and it reminded me how great it was. Stepping foot into your first civilisation is a pretty magical moment, and it's a pretty enchanting place to step into. It's my favourite Kakariko by like, a billion miles.
@Meowpheel Hahahahaa! I did it! That has to be the obscurest and subtlest puzzle in any video game ever. Apart from those irritatingly obtuse point-and-click games that used to dominate the PC. Wow.
I like it though. It's nice to know you've scoured the world and looked at something time and time again, but still have never really seen it.
That brings me up to 100 shrines and 231 Koroks. It feels like a milestone. Enough of a milestone to bother getting back to the story, anyway.
I don't mean to brag at all, but none of these Korok puzzles were ever hard for me beyond getting the objects to actually go where I want with magnesis / the physics system. Only a small number of the shrines and the 'desert colossus' really stumped me badly. After last night I'm nearly at 300 Koroks (like, 294 or some such number).
@Maxz
231 Koroks?!! Oh boy! That makes my effort feel lackluster My 92 koroks now feel pathetic... I think I've got too invested in fashion, I want all the outfits XD
Forums
Topic: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Posts 11,001 to 11,020 of 15,166
Please login or sign up to reply to this topic